Feb. 25, 18S6J 



NA TV RE 



405 



the segments of limbs in the chick during development between 

 the sixth and twentieth days. On or even before the ninth day, 

 the bones of the fore-arm and manus are longer than the cor- 

 responding segments of the leg and foot. Afterwards the tarso- 

 metatarsus begins to lengthen, and maintains a greater relative 

 size at the end of incubation. 



Zoological Society, February 16. — Or. St. George Mivart, 

 F.R.S., Vice President, in the chair. — Mr. Sclalcr exhibited a 

 specimen of the new Paradise-bird. Paradisornis riidolphi of 

 Finsch and Meyer, lately discovered by Mr. Hunslein in the 

 Owen Stanley Mountains of New Guinea, and pointed out the 

 characters in which it differs from typical Paradisca. — The 

 Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Taczanowski, C.M.Z.S., 

 the sl-in of an owl from the south-east of the Ussuri country, 

 on the frontiers of Corea, which appeared to be referable to 

 Bubo blakis'oni of Seebohm. — Mr. E. Gerrard, Jun., exhibited 

 heads and skulls of two African rhinoceroses (A^. bicontis and 

 K. simiis), obtained by Mr. Selous in Mashuna land. — Prof. 

 Ray Lankester exhibited and made remarks on a drawing of a 

 restoration of ArchcToptery.x. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas gave an 

 account of a striking instance of cranial variation due to age, as 

 shown in two specimens of the skull of the Canadian marten 

 (Mus!e!a pcunanti), Mhich presented extreme differences in the 

 breadth of the zygomata, in the contraction of the interorbital 

 sjiace, and in the development of the occipital crest. Special 

 stress was laid on the fact that such changes as these take place after 

 the animal has attained maturity. — Mr. W. L. Sclater exhibited 

 and described a new Madreporarian coral, which he proposed to 

 call Stcphanoti-ochus moscUyanus. . The coral had been dredged 

 in the Faroe Channel during the cruise of H. M.S. Triton in 

 the summer of 18S2. Some account of its anatomy and histology 

 was also given. 



Chemical Society, February 4. — Dr. Hugo Miiller, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following note was read: — The 

 chemical formula for wool keratine, by Edmund J. Mills, 

 F.R.S. — A lecture was delivered on methods of bacteriological 

 research from a biologist's point of view, by Dr. Klein, F. R. .S. 

 The object of the lecture was to bring before the Chemical 

 Society the methods used at present by pathologists in the 

 investigations of micro-organisms associated with disease. These 

 methods, thanks to the investigations of Koch, are greatly in 

 a'dvance of those hitherto employed by chemists in the investi- 

 gation of the activity of bacteria. The enormous amount of 

 work that has been done by chemists since the memorable 

 investigations of Pasteur on fermentation and putrefaction, if 

 viewed in the light of modern bacteriological methods, is in a 

 great measure unsatisfactory and imperfect, more so than will be 

 conceded by chemists. This unsatisfactory state is chiefly due to 

 the imperfect methods employed. Specific chemical action is 

 ascribed to certain organisms, because these were found present 

 in the substances examined, no regard being paid as to whether 

 these organisms were alone active or whether they were only 

 concomitant and dependent on the activity of others. Numbers 

 of instances can be adduced to prove this : amongst them may be 

 mentioned the assertions that alcoholic fermentation is produced 

 by Mucor racemosus, and also by a bacillus besides saccharo- 

 myces ; that the ammoniacal fermentation of urine is due to a 

 bacillus ; that the lactic acid fermentation is due to a micro- 

 coccus and also to a bacillu-. To determine vihether a definite 

 chemical process is produced by a definite organism, and which, 

 it is necessary to prove (l) that the substances to be acted upon 

 are at the outset free of any accidental organisms ; (2) that the 

 particular organism to which the definite chemical activity is 

 ascribed is the only one concerned in this process. The methods 

 used must fulfil these elementary conditions, that is to say : 

 (i) the materials u.seH must be sterile at the outset, and protected 

 from accidental contamination ; (2) the specific organism must 

 be obtained in ^lure cultivations, and this purified organism must 

 be capable of producing the specific chemical change. Viewed 

 in this light, few of the assertions hitherto made bear criticism. 

 As one of the most striking instances it may be mentioned that, 

 notwithstanding the enormous amount of knowledge gained by 

 chemical research into the changes of proteid bodies during 

 putrefaction, there is no reliable answer yet given to the ques- 

 tions — Which organism or organisms arc concerned in this com- 

 plex process ? Which part of the jnocess is due to which 

 organism ? Is the analytical process by which proteids are 

 carried down to relatively simple nitrogenous principles done by 

 one or more organisms and by which ? Is the production of the 

 alkaloids known as ptomaines due to the same organism cr 



organisms which started the process of putrefaction ? Another 

 equally important series of investigations refers to the process of 

 nitrification ; here also no definite answer can be given. So also 

 the chemical changes due to the growth of moulds are waiting 

 for investigation. When chemical research begins to adopt 

 such methods as are employed by pathologists, but not till then, 

 its results will be unequivocal. The methods used for sterilising 

 materials, for studying and recognising the morphological 

 characters of organisms, for obtaining pure cultivations, and for 

 inoculating nutritive materials with them were then minutely 

 described. 



Physical Society, February 13. — Annual General Meeting. 

 Prof. F. Guthrie, President, in the chair. — Prof T. H. Huxley 

 and Mr. A. E. Mills were elected Members of the Society. — 

 The President read the report of the Council. 1 he Treasurer, 

 Dr. E. Atkinson, presented his report, which was adopted. 

 The meeting resolved that votes of thanks be accorded to the 

 Committee of the Council of Education, the President and 

 Officers of the Society, and the Auditors of the Society's 

 accounts. The meeting then proceeded to elect oflScers for the 

 forthcoming year, and a ballot having been taken, the following 

 were declared elected r^President : Dr. Balfour Stewart, 

 F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents: Dr. T. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., Prof. 

 G. C. Foster, F.R.S., Prof. W. G. Adams, F.R.S., Sir W. 

 Thomson, F.R.S., Prof R. B. Clifton, F.R.S., Prof. F. 

 Guthrie, F.R.S. (the above have filled the office of President), 

 Prof W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., Shelford Bidwell, M.A., Prof. H. 

 McLeod, F.R.S., Prof W. Chandler Roberts-Austen, F.R.S. ; 

 Secretaries: Prof A. W. Reinold, F.R.S., and Walter Baily, 

 M.A. ; Treasurer: Dr. E. Atkinson; Demonstrator: C. 

 Vernon Boys ; other Members of Council : Conrad W. 

 Cooke, Prof. G. Forbes, F.R.S. E., Prof. F. Fuller, R. T. 

 Glazebrook, F.R.S., Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S., Prof. T- ''>rry, 

 F.R.S., Prof. T. H. Poynting, Prof A. W. Rucker, "F.R.S., 

 Prof S. P. Thompson, Dr. C. R. Alder Wright, F.R.S.— 

 Prof Guthrie, in resigning the position of President, thanked 

 his colleagues for the help they had afl!brded him since he 

 became President of the .Society in 1884; he also congratulated 

 the Society upon the highly satisfactory state to which it had 

 attained. — The meeting then resolved itself into an ordinary 

 meeting. In the absence of the President, Prof. Balfour 

 Stewart, the chair was occupied by Prof G. C. Foster. — The 

 following communications were read : — On experimental error 

 in calorimetrical work, and on delicate calorimetrical thermo- 

 meters, by Prof U. S. Pickering. In conducting a great 

 number of determinations of the heat of dissolution of a solid 

 body in water, the author has had an opportunity of detecting 

 the sources of error incident on such work, and bj' an examina- 

 tion of the results has not only obtained the mean error of a 

 series of observations, but has been able to a; portionate this 

 error to its various causes. In the experimental work it was 

 found that the presence of anything but air between the calori- 

 meter and jacket was most injurious ; the space -.liould be 

 entirely open, and no cover of any sort should be used. Before 

 reading the thermometers, as pointed out by Berthelot, the top 

 of the stem should be tapped for some time, otherwise the 

 mercury lags behind the true temperature ; l)ut besides this 

 therraometric error, which the author calls the "temporary 

 error," is another effect which may be termed the permanent 

 error, of a similar kind, which no amount of tapping will remove. 

 He has found and verified by special experiments tliat a thermo- 

 meter when rising is invai-iably too low, while when falling ii is 

 invariably too high. Error due to this, which varies in amount 

 wiih different instruments, is avoided by conducting the whole 

 experiment with a rising or with a falling thermometer. The 

 thermometers employed in these experiments had a lange of 

 15° C, and a total length of 600 mm. The experiments were 

 performed at temperatures varying from - 1° to 26° C, and as 

 it was important that the same thermometer should be use 1 11 

 different experiments, and even advisable to use the same part of the 

 scale of the thermometer, the following expedient was devised : 

 The thermometer was first heated to the highest temperature 

 required in the experiment, and, by the application of a flaine 

 to the mercurial column just below the enlarged space at the 

 end of the tube, that part of the mercury above the flame was 

 broken oft" and driven into the space, where it remained when 

 the thermometer was cooled. By this means the relative value 

 of a scale division was only inappreciably affected, while the 

 absolute value could be obtained from a single comparison with 

 a standard. From an examination of the results obtained, the 



